Centre for Digital Cultures

Organisational unit: Institute

Organisation profile

Contemporary culture is characterized by the ubiquity of digital media technologies and infrastructures, which are constantly configuring our techniques for processing, storing, and transmitting data. As a result, our everyday practices of connecting, relating, reading, writing, perceiving, sharing, competing, and communicating are undergoing significant changes. At the same time, these technologies are closely tied to major societal challenges such as climate change, global conflicts, digital divides and social unjustness. In this dynamic context, the Centre for Digital Cultures (CDC) directly addresses the emergence of new and complex qualities of vernacular socio-technical life. This involves the development of advanced theory and innovative study programmes. We are concerned with the question of how we can understand and shape digital cultures today​​​​​​​.

Main research areas

The digital shift re-shapes the cultural sectors, and, indeed, everyday life, politics, law, and economics. the Centre for Digital Cultures (CDC), affiliated to Leuphana University of Lüneburg, examines this shift through a range of interdisciplinary methodologies, including media, cultural and social studies, through knowledge creation and transfer, as well as by developing experimental and interventionist media practices. Established in 2012, as one of the first research centres in Europe to research the emergence of digital cultures, the CDC continues to produce cutting-edge research on socio-technical regimes of inclusion and exclusion. Since its inception, the CDC has built an innovative network and research environment, where academic institutions, practitioners, and civil society stakeholders engage with new concepts, formats, and applications within digital cultures.

Current Research Areas

  • Climate Futures
  • (B)Orders, Identities and Belonging in the Digital Age
  • Cities, Infrastructures, Logistics, Platforms 
  1. 2021
  2. Published

    Where do the data live? Anonymity and Neighborhood Networks

    Heinrichs, R., 03.04.2021, Book of Anonymity. Collective, A. (ed.). punctum books, p. 226-254 29 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksChapterpeer-review

  3. Published

    Toward a Kaleidoscopic Understanding of Anonymity

    Bachmann, G., McHardy, J., Knecht, M. & Zurawski, N., 30.04.2021, Book of Anonymity. Collective, A. (ed.). Brooklyn, NY: punctum books, p. 16-34 19 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksContributions to collected editions/anthologiesResearch

  4. Published

    The wonderfully organized and mediated endurance of ephemera

    Beverungen, A., 12.2021, In: Ephemera: Theory & Politics in Organization. 21, 4, p. 289-306 18 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

  5. Published

    Logistical futures the chinese dream, debordering labor, and migration

    Altenried, M., Bojadžijev, M. & Wallis, M., 20.12.2021, Fake Hybrid Sites Palimpsest: Essays on Leakages. Dutta, M. & Heidenreich, N. (eds.). DE GRUYTER Poland, p. 158-172 15 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksChapterpeer-review

  6. 2022
  7. Published

    Staying with the Secret: The Public Sphere in Platform Society

    Beyes, T., 01.07.2022, In: Theory, Culture & Society. 39, 4, p. 111-127 17 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

  8. Published

    The Invisualities of Capture in Amazon’s Logistical Operations

    Beverungen, A., 01.08.2022, In: Digital Culture & Society. 7, 2, p. 185-202 18 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

  9. Published

    Introducing ‘cultures of rejection’: an investigation of the conditions of acceptability of right-wing politics in Europe

    Bojadžijev, M. & Opratko, B., 20.10.2022, In: Patterns of Prejudice. 56, 4-5, p. 205-218 14 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

  10. Published

    Reglementierte Fragilität und performende Unschärferäume

    Leeker, M., 31.12.2022, Doing Research - Wissenschaftspraktiken zwischen Positionierung und Suchanfrage. Hofhues, S. & Schütze, K. (eds.). transcript Verlag, p. 224-237 14 p. (Science Studies).

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksChapter

  11. 2023
  12. Published

    Digitale Kulturen und Kritik nach ihrem Ende

    Hille, L. & Wentz, D., 2023, Kritik postdigital. Hille, L. & Wentz, D. (eds.). Lüneburg: meson press, p. 9-20 12 p. (Digital Cultures Series).

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksContributions to collected editions/anthologiesResearch

  13. Published

    Kritik in digitalen Kulturen: Begegnungen zwischen Entsagung, Revolution und Affirmation

    Leeker, M., 2023, Kritik postdigital. Hille, L. & Wentz, D. (eds.). Lüneburg: meson press, p. 83-102 20 p. (Digital Cultures Series).

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksContributions to collected editions/anthologiesResearch